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  • Showing only topics in ~tech with the tag "moderation". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. BotDefense's creator told Ars Technica that the team is now quitting Reddit, causing concern about spam moderation on large subreddits

      https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/reddit-mods-fear-spam-overload-as-botdefense-leaves-antagonistic-reddit/ the Reddit community is still reckoning with the consequences of the platform's API...

      https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/reddit-mods-fear-spam-overload-as-botdefense-leaves-antagonistic-reddit/

      the Reddit community is still reckoning with the consequences of the platform's API price hike. The changes have led to the shuttering of numerous third-party Reddit apps and have pushed several important communities, like the Ask Me Anything (AMAs) organizers, to reduce or end their presence on the site.

      The latest group to announce its departure is BotDefense. BotDefense, which helps removes rogue submission and comment bots from Reddit and which is maintained by volunteer moderators, is said to help moderate 3,650 subreddits. BotDefense's creator told Ars Technica that the team is now quitting over Reddit's "antagonistic actions" toward moderators and developers, with concerning implications for spam moderation on some large subreddits like r/space.

      BotDefense started in 2019 as a volunteer project and has been run by volunteer mods, known as "dequeued" and "abrownn" on Reddit. Since then, it claims to have populated its ban list with 144,926 accounts, and it helps moderate subreddits with huge followings, like r/gaming (37.4 million members), /r/aww (34.2 million), r/music (32.4 million), r/Jokes (26.2 million), r/space (23.5 million), and /r/LifeProTips (22.2 million). Dequeued told Ars that other large subreddits BotDefense helps moderates include /r/food, /r/EarthPorn, /r/DIY, and /r/mildlyinteresting.

      On Wednesday, dequeued announced that BotDefense is ceasing operations. BotDefense has already stopped accepting bot account submissions and will disable future action on bots. BotDefense "will continue to review appeals and process unbans for a minimum of 90 days or until Reddit breaks the code running BotDefense," the announcement said. The announcement also advised "keeping BotDefense as a moderator through October 3rd so any future unbans can be processed."

      51 votes
    2. Reddit technical issues seem to be leading to comments still being visible on the site that users assumed were deleted

      Edit: This might be a caching issue - Tildes mods have edited this post's title accordingly. Anyway, this issue is concerning, as many people deleted their comments and accounts. Now the accounts...

      Edit:

      This might be a caching issue - Tildes mods have edited this post's title accordingly.

      Anyway, this issue is concerning, as many people deleted their comments and accounts. Now the accounts are gone but the comments are back. Intentional or not, Reddit should fix this asap and communicate. This isn't acceptable.

      Edit 2, 16 days after the original post:

      For the 4th or 5th time, comments are popping back. Most of them in their original form, very few (2 out of 25) still edited as "[deleted]"

      Original post:

      (I know, more reddit stuff, sorry)

      On June 16, four days after the beginning of the current Reddit protests, some users were reporting that their deleted comments were getting restored:

      There were doubts if this was intentional or a bug caused by the blackout, or some rollbacks. Hanlon's razor, etc.

      I then personally mass-edited my comments to "[removed]" two days ago, and lo & behold, they're getting edited back. And from what I've seen, there's definitely a pattern:

      • All restored comments are at least 8-12 months old, so several pages deep in the comments history
      • 90% of them are about programming, a few of them on my country's subreddit.
        • (More than half of my comments are on gaming subreddits, they're still edited as "[removed]")
      • The vast majority of them have responses
        • (Though most of my comments also have responses)
      • They're edited back in "small waves". 15-20 this morning, 4 this evening (so far).

      I'm now editing them back twice, hoping that Reddit only keeps the previous version of a comment.

      I find Reddit's behavior to be absolutely shameful. I've been on internet forums for nearly 25 years, and I've never seen a site unilaterally and silently decide to un-delete or (un-)edit comments. Never.

      It feels like a golden rule of internet has been broken, and I'm surprised to not see more talks about it.

      94 votes
    3. Reddit admins are now approaching mod teams of closed subreddits, looking for moderators who will cooperate and re-open them

      I just saw this post in the /r/ModCoord subreddit, which lists multiple instances of Reddit admins contacting moderator teams of closed subreddits with this message: Hi everyone, We are aware that...

      I just saw this post in the /r/ModCoord subreddit, which lists multiple instances of Reddit admins contacting moderator teams of closed subreddits with this message:

      Hi everyone,

      We are aware that you have chosen to close your community at this time. We are reaching out to find out if any moderators currently on the mod team would be willing to take steps to reopen the community. Subreddits exist for the benefit of the community of users who come to them for support and belonging and in the end, moderators are stewards of these spaces and in a position of trust. Your users rely on your community for information, support, entertainment, and finding connection with others who have similar interests. The ability to find and make these connections is incredibly important to many people and ensuring that active communities are able to remain stable and active (and open) is very important.

      Our goal here is to work with the existing mod team to find a path forward and make sure your subreddit is usable for the community which makes its home here. If you are not able or willing to reopen and maintain the community please let us know.

      Shit is getting real. The admins are looking for scabs who are willing to cross the picket-line and do the work the strikers are refusing to do.

      It's not like this wasn't predictable. We all knew this was coming. It's still surprising to see it actually happen.

      229 votes
    4. Reddit CEO pledges to not force subreddits to reopen. Admin team then immediately threatens moderators who closed their subreddits with removal.

      In this article from The Verge posted today "While the company does “respect the community’s right to protest” and pledges that it won’t force communities to reopen, Reddit also suggests there’s...

      In this article from The Verge posted today "While the company does “respect the community’s right to protest” and pledges that it won’t force communities to reopen, Reddit also suggests there’s no need for that"

      Ironically mere minutes before this article went live, Reddit admins posted this to /r/modsupport.

      "Leaving a community you deeply care for and have nurtured for years is a hard choice, but it is a choice some may need to make if they are no longer interested in moderating that community. If a moderator team unanimously decides to stop moderating, we will invite new, active moderators to keep these spaces open and accessible to users. If there is no consensus, but at least one mod who wants to keep the community going, we will respect their decisions and remove those who no longer want to moderate from the mod team."

      This statement not only completely contradicts what was "pledged" by Spez, but is also a very clear threat to subreddit moderators telling them to fall in line or get replaced by someone who will.

      More articles that came out today about this subject:

      Kotaku: Reddit's CEO Is Just Making Everything Worse

      NBC: Reddit CEO slams protest leaders, saying he'll change rules that favor ‘landed gentry’

      MacRumors: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators From Subreddits Continuing Apollo-Related Blackouts

      ARS Technica: As the Reddit war rages on, community trust is the casualty

      NPR: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman: 'It's time we grow up and behave like an adult company'

      The full Verge interview Reddit CEO Steve Huffman isn’t backing down: our full interview

      397 votes